Menu

Experimenting with Life

The prestigious Engineering Services Examination conducted by UPSC is almost a month away now. Popularly known as the IES exam, it holds a very important position in the minds of the Engineering students of Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and ECE branch. If you are an aspirant, then i am pretty sure that you might be going through this question- What should be my strategy for this last one month?

This post is to remove that doubt from your mindset and to prepare you for that final battle. Without wasting any more single minute, let’s have a look at the things, you must be doing now.

1. Revise the Formula and Concepts-

As far as technical part of the papers are concerned, there is a prerequisite for getting very good marks in the paper. This prerequisite is that –

The moment you enter the Examination hall, all the important Formulae and Concepts should be on your tip of tongue.

Remember this fact, that if you have all those concepts and formulae in your mind, you will definitely come up with flying colors. The objective paper of IES is a test of speed and application of concepts. If you can’t remember the concepts, how will you proceed? Not only this, it increases your confidence manifold. With a confident mindset, you will easily solve the paper.

If you haven’t made notes for it, or you want an amazing compilation of formulae and concepts, you can purchase these books. Believe me, it will help you a lot.

2. Practice as much as Possible

Practice is the key to success in any exam. If you are not practicing enough, you are digging your own grave. In this one month time, you should always be seen with a copy and a pen, solving some problem. But, any action without proper direction, amounts to a waste. So, while practicing, your aim should be –

To increase your speed.

To increase your accuracy.

To improve your choice of question. You should gain the skill of identifying the doable from the un-doable ones. Not only will it save your time in exam, but also will help in drastically reduce the negative marks.

To gain confidence.

It should also be kept in mind that, you will have to face two subjective papers too. For those papers, practice is a must. You should have the practice to write continuously for 3 hours. So, while practicing for conventional papers, your aim should be to-

To increase your writing speed.

To reduce mistakes and cuttings.

To improve your hand writing.

To get used to to the exam fatigue.

3. Strengthen your Vocabulary

There is a paper on GS and English in ESE. If you look at it close enough, you will find that in English part, vocabulary plays a good part. This improved vocabulary can help you earn at least extra 10 marks.

In competitive examinations like IES, even a single mark can have a drastic impact on your final rank.

Strengthening your vocabulary will have multiple impacts on you are your personality. You must not ignore this aspect. Apart from examination purposes, it makes you sound more smart and confident. You can buy this book and start improving today onwards.

4. Stop Procrastinating

ESE is a tough exam. Its not the paper which makes it tough but the competition involved in it. Around a Lakh people competing for 100 odd seats is really frightening. This creates an enormous pressure on the mind of aspirants. They start questioning their ability. A doubt comes in their mind. They start to worry that what will happen if they couldn’t make it. Now, i will tell you a secret –

Only those make through the exam who are pretty sure of their Success from the start.

Never ever ever, ever ever, doubt your abilities. Each and every person has got E=mc2 Joules of energy in itself. Even if it will use 0.01% of that energy, it will have an enormous impact. Always feel as if you are already an IES officer.

Yesterday, an aspirant asked me an innocent question- “Sir, can normal people clear IES exam?”. To which my reply was- “Yes. After all, I am a normal person. Infact, only normal people can clear IES exam.” 🙂

5. Be Selective

A Great King knows where he can have a victory and only there he applies his resources. If their is an enemy who is even powerful than him, he either tries to befriend him or stays away. You should be like that King only.

Since, there is not much time left, you must not engage yourself in the topics which are your weak points. This will put your most important resource, time, at risk. Instead, you should focus more on the topics where your are sure of the chances of improvement. Don’t be the horse to strike a wall and die. Be the horse who can make his way through the hurdles.

This one month is very crucial. It can change your life forever. Opportunities will not come again. Use this one month as much as possible. Make this one month, the most productive month of your life. This is something to enjoy, something to cherish. Experience it like the preparation for the Grand event. India is waiting for you. It is waiting for another IES officer, which is you.

All the best! 🙂

So, this is it! If you have any queries, you can ask in the comment box below and get the replies direct from the horse’s mouth 😛

Liked this post? Instead of saying thank you, you can help in spreading the word, so that others may also get benefited. Share the link to this post on your facebook wall to show the gratitude. Thank you in advance. 🙂

Sir it seems you are not there as you have still not responded to my doubts. Sir I m still waiting. Can you make it fast.? Each day I m visiting your blog just to find that you have not responded. It left me frustrated.

Sir
I read your blog from some time it’s really very nice.Thank’s sir for giving us such a nice platform. We are blessed to have a mentor like you. Coming to my point sir I want to tell you that I had just finished my btech from Nit patna and just moved to delhi for preparing for coveted ESE 2015 from civil stream. I have also joined IES MASTER to help me in preparation. Can you please guide what should be my strategy at this point of time for effective revision so that I retain whatsoever is taught to me, for complete one year. My problem always lie in revision area. Plz give me some tips for effective revision as I m in badly need of it. I will follow your advise very seriously sir.

Very well written and a much needed motivation pill for all the students who get jittery in these last few weeks! It is quite natural to feel blank and pessimist on the thought of being in this competition with so many technically sound candidates, but your ‘point 4’ can have a stimulating effect on candidates like me who are vulnerable to negative thoughts of not being able to make it! Thank you so much for this push!

And one question, about being selective, For instance, subjects like Circuit Theory, Electromagnetic Theory are my weak subjects, so what would be better…should i give these subjects more time at this stage or just study the important topics from them? Please suggest and guide!

Thank you for those kind words 🙂
Regarding selectivity, I will recommend you to go for the important topics only, since the time is less. There is very less probability of a weak subject turning into a well prepared subject in these 30 days and unless you are confident in a subject, you will end up wasting your time and/or earning negative marks.
But still, go for a cursory look at the formulae and the examples if you get time. You may get lucky, after all!

I was quite worried about circuit theory and electromagnetic theory, because they were taking a lot of time and energy and I couldn’t ignore them either because they are one of the most important subjects! I hope an average preparation for these subjects won’t make a big negative impact on the whole exam?

Ruchi, i will not give you a false hope. An average preparation for EMT can help you, but for circuit theory, it will help only in the easy ones. But, you shouldn’t worry about them. Focus on your strong topics, and when you get time, you can take a look on these topics too. But, be cautious in the examination. Do not get indulged in questions related to your weak topics, if you are not 100% sure about it. You may end up losing marks.

Sir, this is Reddy Sekhar & i’m working as a junior engineer in Indian Railways..i want to become an IES Officer. my working hours are 8 AM to 5 PM. How can i go through my preparation. i didn’t gone through any coaching in the past. How i have to plan my daily schedule. please suggest me.

Since i am also a probationer in Indian Railways, i know how hectic can it get. I will advise you to adopt a slow yet steady strategy for preparation. Make a firm determination that you will study at least 2 hours everyday. Chalk out a plan and jot down that on a paper. Do frequent revisions in the plan, whenever you feel the need for that. Devote 35:65 time for studying:practicing problems.

Sir actually my problem is if i read for 1 week remaining of that particular month has been wasted due to the lack of interest. Im getting extreme interest for a few period only sir, after that again im dropping. Due to this my time was so much wasted. Simply to say there is no continuity in my preparation sir. so that im loosing my confidence. please give any suggestion to me sir please.

Hi Lokesh,
I haven’t gone through the first one, so can’t comment on that.
But the second one is really amazing book. I will advice you to take a look at that one.
As far as backup job is concerned, you can focus on GATE and other state govt. exams, since they have more or less similar syllabus.